A Groundbreaking Exchange Between Israeli and North American Artists:
2024 Zamru Summit | July 9–14
Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center Launches First of Its Kind Global Gathering of Music and Prayer Leaders
July 9, 2024
Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center (FJC) launches a new international Jewish spiritual music summit in the beating heart of Jerusalem. Throughout the week-long program, participants aim to explore what spiritual music-making looks like both within mainstream Jewish institutions and without, establish deep interpersonal and professional relationships, and share innovative ideas and best practices.
North American participants include cantors and prayer leaders and high-level musicians well-versed in facilitating communal spiritual experiences. Israeli participants include community leaders and musicians, alumni from FJC’s Zamru – a program centered on the nexus of musical innovation and tradition. The Zamru Summit brings together passionate musical innovators with extensive experience in traditional prayer forms, Hebrew, and creative ritual to study, jam, and collaborate. The 2024 Zamru Summit is a partnership of Sha’arei Bracha, a newly established hub of Jewish ritual innovation at FJC, the Cantors’ Assembly, JNF, the Jewish Agency, the Shirley and William Fleischer Family Foundation, and private donors.
Meir Berman, Co-Director of the Zamru program, said, “We kick off today with extensive masterclasses and sessions with local musicians and artists. We anticipate an inspiring and moving experience for the group when we visit the site of the Nova Music Festival on Thursday and during our live performances and events that are open for everyone to attend and participate!”
The 2024 Zamru Summit is taking place from July 9th to 14th at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and will include events that are open to the general public, including a Wednesday night song circle with the FJC community, a Friday night musical Kabbalat Shabbat with the Nava Tehila community, and a collaborative Shabbat Shacharit service. The summit will culminate on Sunday with professional recordings of the music created in a cross-cultural collaboration between the artists throughout the summit.
Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff, CEO of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, added, “It’s in dark times that the light provided by visionary musicians shines brightest. We’re here to imagine a spiritual soundtrack for the Jewish people – to comfort, to inspire, to heal, and to bring us closer together.”
About the Zamru Program
Zamru is an annual peer program powering experiential, creative, and inquisitive exploration of prayer. We investigate the role of prayer in our lives, within our community, and in the Jewish-Israeli rituals of the 21st century. Aiming to cultivate a community of prayer leaders who are committed to creating and maintaining spaces and language for contemporary Jewish prayer both including and beyond traditional forms, the program’s approach is rooted in Jewish legacies while engaging in an open, respectful, and fruitful dialogue with the world.